At the fourth El Gouna Film Festival, 'Goodbye Julia' won the MAD Ergo award at the CineGouna SpringBoard.
MAD Solutions has acquired worldwide distribution rights to Mohamed Kordofani’s debut feature Goodbye Julia. This is the first time a Sudanese director and film have been part of the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival. The film will screen in the Un Certain Regard category.
Written and directed by Kordofani, Goodbye Julia takes place in Khartoum in the seething aftermath of the Civil War that ended in 2005 and led to the eventual creation of an independent South Sudan six years later.
The film, which stars Eiman Yousif, Siran Riak, Nazar Goma, and Ger Duany, is a story about two women who represent the complicated relationship and differences between Northern and Southern Sudanese communities. Their lives become entangled after a hit-and-run car accident thrusts them into a tense tale of conflicted loyalties and hidden secrets against a backdrop of national turmoil.
Goodbye Julia is produced by acclaimed Sudanese filmmaker Amjad Abu Alala, along with Mohamed Al-Omda, his partner in the Sudanese cinema production house Station Films.
The film is co-produced by Egyptian producers Baho Bakhsh, Adham Sherif, Safei Eldin Mahmoud, and Ali El Arabi, Sudanese producer Khaled Awad, German producer Michael Hendricks, French producer Marc Irmer, Saudi producer Faisal Baltyuor, Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani, and Swedish-Sudanese producer Issraa El-Kogali.
Goodbye Julia won the MAD Ergo award at the CineGouna SpringBoard that was held at the fourth edition of the El Gouna Film Festival, in addition to Best Film Project in the Development Phase ($15,000), a certificate from the El Gouna Cinema Platform, and the New Century Prize ($10,000). The film also won the Malmö Arab Film Festival’s award for Best Project In Development and received financial support from Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Fund and Beirut’s Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC).
